New Beginnings!!

So my hubby and I looked at the ugly truth and looked at our finances last night. It was not pretty but not that bad at the same time. Yes, we were over extended like the majority of this country but we think we can get out of our credit card debt in a few years IF we are mindful of our spending. Our expenses were ugly and I think I was in shock we spent so much money at Target just turns your stomach sour. It was like we were living a rich man's lifestyle on a poor man's salary. It's the whole saying "Buy now and Pay later" but the problem with this is the paying later. I think we had good intention to just pay later but it's the vicious cycle where you plan to pay your debt back but you keep spending and then the pay later gets bumped further into your future. I think Credit is Evil!! Not worth it and it's one of those things I wish we didn't apply for credit. I think it would have been good to just have one but having several not a great idea but it's reality and so we have to change how we look at money so we can pay off those damn credit cards. Those cards are a thorn in our children's future. They got to be paid off!!! So we have a plan. Right now, it's cutting out some expenses we can live without. Not eating out as much and reining in on the grocery bill to just buy what we need to just buying a lot of junk food. All the extra nonessential spending is out meaning no more buying like we're rich at Target anymore and going back to spend the basic needs for the kids. Of course, their are expenses we have that we can't change because it's the bills like mortgage, power, water, garbage etc. No more living like we have a money tree!!! It's a process and we made a choice to look at our finances every two weeks. It's going to be tedious for a while but you know saving for our families future is worth staring at income statements and balance sheets every 2 weeks. I'm getting excited because if we're smart we can get at least 3 of our credit cards paid off in ONE year or confidently 2 cards paid off in one year. By our calculations if we just are frugal with our spending not to the point of pinching pennies but being realistic about our wants verses our needs we can live comfortably and save money. The goal is paying off those credit cards for good and going back to just having one. I think in a couple of months our 2 kids will be getting their College Funds started. That's exciting to me. I think that's an accomplishment as a Mother to give this gift to my children and actually start on the road then just talking about it and doing nothing until it's too late. I know I can do this and I have excitement I haven't felt in along time. I really want this and I know it's going to pay off. It's like the mentality of wanting to become rich by only buying Lottery Tickets. That's fine because people have won big but you could be waiting your lifetime and never win. Instead of waiting for my large payout from the Lottery I'm taking that first step to making my Lottery winnings by doing instead of waiting. No one is going to make us have financial Security and now I feel like I'm on some infomercial plugging some product for getting rich. You know maybe my family won't get rich by changing our spending but we'll be way better off then we were a month ago by not doing anything. We're taking our family back to a healthier financial living and to me that's better than just talking about change and not actually changing. We're changing for the better!! Take care, Peace!!